Melinda Anderson on placemaking, art installations and roller skating - Crain's Detroit Business

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STUDIO M DETROIT LLC: In part, a love of Legos led Detroit native and Cass Technical High School and University of Michigan graduate Melinda Anderson into architecture and design. These days, after a stint in Berlin following her undergraduate years in 1998, she is president and event producer for Studio M Detroit LLC after working with Design Core Detroit for nearly nine years. Downtown walkers will also notice Anderson's art installation in Parker's Alley behind the Shinola Hotel, which will get a Detroit Tigers Opening Day theme shortly. Anderson was named a Crain's Notable Woman in Design last year.

When not working in design and event production (she is involved in the production of the Movement electronic music festival, for example), Anderson figure skates and is contemplating roller skating, dabbles on TikTok and, most importantly, serves as caregiver for her father, who has multiple sclerosis.

Tell us a little bit about your Parker's Alley installation that's going on right now.

During these times, people need joy and something that will uplift their spirits, you know, in such a crazy and dark time. And so (Bedrock and I) had the idea of an installation and we launched it on Valentine's Day, but I picked the concept of letting them change the insert of the installation but keeping the structure the same. The first installation is essentially a big heart that has 313 on it and it glows and it's very symbolic, a very simple piece. Now for St. Patty's Day, it's a rainbow and I incorporated buckets into the installation because with art and design, I like to take commonplace items and make people look twice.

What else is on the horizon for that?

The last iteration will be for Opening Day. There was some talk that possibly this could get extended. This was a product of Bedrock's Decked Out Detroit campaign, which was a winter thing.

Something like that, I think, leads to a broader discussion on placemaking in the city.

Placemaking and programming are tied together as one because if you really want to get ahold of a place, it's not just about building a physical space, it's about how you feel in those spaces. So using art and design as a driver for not only placemaking, but also for economic development, that's a lot of the work that I did design for.

When I talked about ephemeral design, events are ephemeral, and so what I was charged with when I started working with Bedrock, they were talking about, "Well, how can we really make our placemaking feel more authentic and more engaging to the residents of Detroit?" And so we have some really great conversations where we talked about making that work. I think that they're really on the right path to have these conversations, and you know they have the courage to say, "Hey, we are doing this internally but let's get an outside perspective," and that's where I came in, because of my history in Detroit and expertise.

That's been kind of cool because we're able to really start to turn the corner a little bit. I think that is moving in a direction where I can say to them, just very frankly, "Here are some things I would do," and be a consultant there.

In some ways, placemaking in Detroit has come with things that aren't very conducive to a pandemic — "touchy-feely" public pianos, other instruments, Jenga, urban beaches, etc. How has the pandemic affected all this?

Placemaking is not really going to go back to what it was. And so, I really feel like there's an opportunity to not be as "touchy-feely," but get more soul to the soul of the person and really use the person as the design element. To me, that's the way I like installations, where you don't touch, but the person becomes a part of the design. I always do want my installations to be interactive, but they're interactive in a different way.

And you notice the recent installation in Parker's Alley is a rainbow made out of flowers. So someone today went and smelled it, and someone said, "Oh my gosh, please don't do that, how many people have done that!" So it made me think, "OK, I have to continue to design but in a different way," because even after COVID, people will still be leery.

What keeps you busy when you're not at your day job?

Being a caregiver. I've been caregiver for my father, who has had multiple sclerosis, for 25 years. That was a big part of me being in Detroit, because after I came back from Berlin, I was in love with someone. The plan was for me to stay here for a year, make money, go back and go to graduate school. Things did not work out with me and that person, in part because of my choices to stay here. I did want to be here to assist my father.

Being a caregiver and a full-time entrepreneur, you know, it's been a masterpiece, because it's the project that I've worked on the longest in my life. I'm not trying to distill it down to just a project, but I've never had to be so committed as I had and me having to keep dual schedules. So that keeps me very busy.

But then also, figure skating. I love to figure skate. I'm actually thinking about getting roller skates. Go down to the Dequindre Cut. I think it's a great form of exercise and roller skating has become quite popular. I love travel, but obviously can't do a lot of that. I also am really into TikTok. I'm so embarrassed, but TikTok has been amazing for small businesses. I had this idea of deconstructing old televisions. So I've been deconstructing these old televisions and I'm doing these set designs within these old televisions.

Kind of like dioramas?

Exactly.

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